Despite having shown better results during its fourth quarter (+36%) in comparison to the benchmark period in 2014, Tunisian firm Société Moderne des Céramiques (SOMOCER) closed 2015 by recording a 6.28% fall in its turnover to TND67.47 million against TND71.99 million for the same period in 2014.

This can be explained by the current security challenges in Libya which happens to be one if the main export target of the company. Whilst local sales show a satisfying 5.19% hike, export turnover fell almost 60% over the benchmark period. However, it must be highlighted that though it fell globally, this performance is still higher than that recently forecast by the group’s management.

In December 2015, its director general, Riadh Jaidane, announced it intended to generate at the end of 2015 a turnover of 65.5 million dinars for a net result of 1.98 million dinars. Actual results therefore exceeds the projections by more than TND2 million.

This might explain why its share on the Tunisian bourse soared 1.53% today January 26, 2016. Volume traded is however modest (10 shares only at 11am GMT+1). This might lead investors to be more cautious until the release of full results, since net result’s curve should still be looked at.

Presently, the big challenge is the group’s exposure to banks, with almost TND91 million of liabilities to banks including 43.4 million of treasury loans and TND20 million of medium-term credit loans. It should be recalled that the volume of these loans increased 7.9% between September 2015 and the end of the year.

Idriss Linge